Accel world: Tactical Burst Online The world at War
by Admiral Dooshner
Summary: Greg Cloverfield, lets just say his life sucks... a lot. But then one day the person he could only dream of ever talking to: Acadia Van Chromium, also known as the Weib Rose in the North American version of Japan's Brain Burst game: Tactical Burst Online. Approaches him with an invitation. From downloading the game and on wards, his life like Haruyuki... totally changed.


Chapter One: Induction

 _Disclaimer: I personally do not own any of the original ideas, songs, movies, clips, and quotes, mentioned here in this story. They all belong to their respective owners._

It was once again another beautiful day here in Toronto and once again for fifteen year old Greg Cloverfield, it would be yet again another day at high-school. Despicable, boring, and non-meaningful high-school by his standards. Taking a vantage point coming from his past you can obviously interpret as to exactly why school stands such a low rank in her list of favorites. It was cruel, hard, bumpy and fiery for him during his years up the road to grade nine.

Greg Cloverfield, fifteen years old can be described as slightly obese boy with a rather short build with most of his mass centering on his thigh bones. He had blackishly blonde hair and brown eyes with black pupils and also a chubby looking face that wouldn't have made him much pleasurable around the better looking girls at his school.

Life for Greg had always been rough, no it wasn't his parents whom had been doing all their absolute best in helping in whatever way they can think of all to the effort of aiding Greg into society. But Greg wasn't the type of person who really had the strength to speak out his inner feelings and thus he had kept many dark events of his life so far all huddled up into a locked safe somewhere in his brain. In terms of grade he wasn't amongst the best of the pack either, barely maintaining a seventy percent average. You can pretty much say his childhood dream of going to Cornell University in the US was pretty much crushed considered what little time he has left to prepare for it. It would require a miracle for that to happen.

His lack of relations in social life also plagues him gravely, as he has only a handful of friends whom he'd met while playing online games or during typical round matches in "Smash" during period three lunch breaks. He had also unintentionally created a feud with a group of science driven diehards whom had sworn together as brothers and to one day invent the hyperdrive system. Radical but the determination is something to be applaud about as the leader of the specific group was already taking a course in grade 11 physics and another was already taking out of school lessons in engineering.

Creating a feud with this group of masterminds wasn't something that anyone would want to do now isn't it? To make matters worse, the group also had one particular person named "Xiao Da ni" translated in literal English: "Little fight you!" The group's schemist you can plot him in this feud, a huge fan of the three kingdoms stories and perhaps only of the only few people in this entire world whom were capable of taking the tactics of tricking, betraying, allying, to full usage in the real world without breaking the law. This man, has been the source of his misery, his despise-ment in the school, and his never ending fear of being bullied indirectly by him when he uses one of a group of his numerous contacts at his disposal.

But looking on the bright side of things, for him atleast. It was a three year grind left till he'll be able to escape from the treacheries of school and enter the workforce. In terms of pay that might not be the most however, it was much better than sitting in the classrooms all day long and listening to the teachers yap on and on about the same things over and over again. Again, it would require a miracle for someone to do to him in order to change him to actually to listen to what the teacher says.

"Ring ring ring! RING RING RING! RRRRIIINNNGGGG!" His alarm clock went off.

Greg without hesitation slammed fist down onto the snooze button before falling asleep again and his dream reconciled with him.

"Captain Ducky… I will not be coming to a full stop on the tarmac as I am not getting paid enough to wreck my plane today! I will open up the bay doors for your team to get on by you only have one shot at getting aboard. Zakhaev out." The man piloting the Antonov AN225 spoke in his thick Russian accent as the plane came into view.

Soaring over the tank boneyard like a gigantic white dove of hope was the massive piece of pure Russian engineering capability nearly a century ago. It still can fly today, that was truly what made it amazing.

"Roger that Zakhaev!" Captain Ducky, or Greg responded over his headset as he yelled at the driver of his technical.

"Macdonald! Push it on that accelerator! We've only one shot at getting out of this alive so make it count!" He yelled.

"Yes sir!" The driver replied as he jammed a brick onto the accelerator.

Pursuing them, was a few band wagon full of armed insurrectionists carrying nothing more but stereotypical RPG-7s and AK-47 assault rifles, unleash salvo after salvo of poorly aimed fire at the small group of fleeing US navy SEALs.

Ahead of them, the white bird began its approach for an unstopped touchdown and the rear end began to open up. This was it, it was on or nothing as the jeep rocketed forwards.

"GO GO GO GO GGOOO!" Greg shouted at the top of his lungs as they drew closer and closer to the bay doors of the Antonov.

With a slight of a bump it was then soon revealed that the jeep had kicked itself into the cargo bay of the gigantic white bird and soon enough. The bay doors were slowly closing as the hydraulics got to work. The engines soon started getting louder and a slight of a tilt was detected and it only grew steeper and steeper in incline.

"Job complete… well done mi amigos." Greg said expecting a response from his fellow colleagues in arms. No, except he didn't. What he did receive was a force boot out of his wondrous dream from a splash of cold liquid and he soon found his older brother standing beside his bed, a grin on his face while wielding an empty bucket in his hands.

"Morning GGGrreeegg!" He trolled turning his head towards the digital clock. "We've been trying to get you up for the past half hour, but you didn't wake up… Oh well whatever. You're going to miss you bus just about…now." He said and right on cue, Greg heard the honing of his school bus at the nearby pickup point soon accompanied by the groaning of the engine. It was gone.

"Heh heh, have fun getting that late slip and explaining to your first period teacher as to why you were so late." His brother said dropping the bucket onto Greg's chest before leaving his room. "I'm leaving for my campus now so I won't be driving you to school. Have fun walking Greg!" He yelled before he slipped on his shoes and his exiting of the house was heard.

"Sh..sh…sh..SSSHHIIITTT!" Greg swore aloud as his older brother started the engine in his Honda before pulling out of the driveways and speeding off.

"This is bad.. this bad this bad this is BBBAAADD!" He yelled leaping out of bed and spraining his ankle in the process and falling over. A gruesome crack was heard as he made impact with the dry wall and caved in onto it head first.

Pulling his head out, he was lucky the impact had not shattered his cranium or drew and blood. Just a small scratch, but this hole in wall was something that made things worse. His head was, pretty darn big and this hole in the wall was a crack measuring 15 centimeters in diameter. Well done Greg! You just broke the dry wall… AGAIN!

This was something no longer in his control so he decided to ignore it for the time being and quickly changed into his high school uniform before limping down the stairs to snatch a quick breakfast. He thought of the long and painful walk ahead with his sore ankle all the way forwards. Jamming a roughly made raw egg sandwich into his mouth, he headed for the door and began to put on his shoes before hearing a pair of 6.5L V12 engines from her across street neighbor's duo of Lamborghini Centenarios rev to life.

"They might be just going off to work showing off their old cars again… show offs." He thought as he opened the door to see one of the cars moving off the curved in stone driveway of the mansion which occupied the lots of four former homes that stood there. It turned onto the street and soon the excruciatingly annoying buzz of the engine could be heard as it accelerated down the road.

Moments later, a girl holding onto a BMX bike with both of her hands was seen walking out of the open garage door. Mounted the bike, turned around and waved at her older sister and took off. Moments later an older girl appeared holding leather briefcase in one of her hands a thermos housing her early morning coffee, headed towards the idling car she'd left seconds earlier to go back into the house to retriever her school briefcase. Got into her car she placed her briefcase into the middle and switched the gears to D and started easing the car slowly off the driveway.

"Ugghhh… should I do it?" Greg asked himself as he began walking down his own asphalt driveway. "Well, it's better than having to walk the entire way, in exchange for a slight bit of embarrassment... Yes I shall ask her for a ride!" He said looking up.

He didn't need to as the car was already at the end of his driveway and the blonde had rolled down the window and was looking at him.

"Snoozing too much again schwienhort? Come on, get in. I'll give you a ride to school." She spoke in one her accents, German this time.

Greg didn't need a second offer as he quickly ran to the car and got in. Sighing, the girl pressed on the accelerator and got the car going.

For most of the duration of the drive, it had been a silent one. Greg kept taking quick snap-glances at her neighbor's daughter from time to time to observe the expression on her face. It didn't change the slightest for the entire time.

"Hey uhh, thanks for picking me up Acadia." Greg managed once again taking a snap-glance at her.

No response came immediately.

"Uhh... Acadia are you ok?" Greg asked.

"Yah, I'm fine. But just stop taking quick glances at me as its pretty irritating when you do that ok?" She replied turning into the school's busy driveway and guided the car into the parking lot. Turning into the designated parking space reserved for her, Acadia killed the engine took her brief case and opened the door and get out of the car. Greg did the same and quickly hurried off.

"Thanks for the ride again!" He shouted before disappearing behind the main entrance door.

 **[Towards the end of second period]**

"And you take the slope and apply it to one of the ordered pairs like this for example…" Greg's boring math teacher, Ms. Jenkins droned onwards as she repeated the way to find slope of a line for the fifth time. Second period had gone by like a turtle, she began with the same thing and is still on the same thing. Even the brightest of the kids sitting up in the front were slowly showing signs of ignorance to what the teacher was saying.

"When is this going to end? I'm hungry… I want to go get something to eat." Greg thought in agony as he watched the second hand of the clock turn clockwise second by second. It was a grueling sequence watching the last ten minutes of clock time going by.

Unsuspectingly, a message appeared on his HUD indicating he'd just received mail. From whom was it from? He pressed on the mail box and out opened a voice file. Pressing play, he wished he hadn't.

" _Ok private fat body! For lunch you're to buy me a pair of Twinkies, a 500ml soda bottle of coke, a deluxe cheeseburger and also a stack of fries. You know what will happen to you if you don't listen to me don't you? SO GET TO IT WHEN THE BELL RINGS! And, we're meeting at 'the place' ok kid? BE THERE!"_ The voice yelled in his ears.

Greg sighed, if it wasn't one of that bully's contacts, Johnson Canfielder. One of those absolute natural jackasses that simply loved to pick on little fat kids like him. It should also be noted that he had a black belt in karate, something that Greg had experienced to a certain painful extent beyond the viewing ranges of the school's surveillance cameras.

If Greg just had a way to get rid of him, but he didn't, he couldn't. Of course getting rid of him would showcase his power to deal with these situations and it would come at a shock to most of his enemies. But it could easily go the wrong way as the 'schemist' would pull some other nasty trick up his sleeves. In short, Greg had simply given up and decided to just cope with this situation instead of fighting against it. It was something that would be 'too hard' for him to accomplish.

He quickly wrote up the reply.

" _Yes ok. I've received your order. I will carry it out to the best of my abilities and I promise not to disappoint you this round. And yes, I will be there to deliver you your request."_

Once again, it was another example of him giving into his hopeless situation and obeying his enslaver's command instead of at least trying to stand up against it.

 **[Lunch hour, on the roof of the High-school]**

Twack! Somebody was slapped in the face. Twack… twack, TWACK! Three repetitive slaps were carried out in a fast interval. Thud! Someone got kneed in the chest. The sound of restraining done by two people could be heard while another sound emitted involving the cracking of knuckles.

"This is the fifth time in a row of you disappointing me Mr. Cloverfield! You have disappointed me five straight FUCKING! Times Mr. Cloverfield. And for that reasons, ugh..." THUD! The bully threw a light punch dead center into Greg's chest. "For this reason you shall receive not one penalty beat down, but three beat downs beginning with THIS ONE!" And he kneed him in the crotch causing Greg to wince in pain before he was released to collapse onto the ground by his two restrainers.

"Heh, kid. You've gotta pretty big head don't you now. Hmm, I think it's the size of a small watermelon isn't that right bois?!" The ring leading bully mocked.

"Yes indeed! He sure has one big head Mr. Canfielder!" One Johnson's colleagues in crime responded.

"We should get a stick and crack it open like 'whah'chaaahh' and see what undeveloped brain is inside!" The other said gleaming.

"Well you all know we won't be able to get away with this if we split his head open like a watermelon. His brain guts will be all over the place and we would be splattered by his contaminated blood. Nah nah, I've got a better idea!" Johnson said.

"By the way fat body. Mr. Xiao and his friends will be with us here tomorrow. Do yourself a favor and don't make a fool out of yourself. I also want the same things I ordered earlier today but double the amount!" He shouted.

Another final beat down was delivered to Greg before the trio of meanies left Greg to rot on the school's roof on the boiling hot summer day. His body was terribly hurt, physically and psychologically. But Johnson really knew how to deliver the pain while covering up his tracks. He still managed to give Greg the full pain of his fists, but he didn't leave a single bruise on his fat body. Much of this was due to that fact that Greg had a rather large build.

It took a while for Greg to finally regain his footing and haul himself off the roof. The next place he went to was that nearest washroom and entered one of the stalls and set the lock on. Sitting on the toilet, he covered his face with his hands and shook his head in defeat. He was useless, a grub waiting to be eaten by a predator. He now only had one place to retreat to, the world in which he was actually good at one thing. The virtual world.

"Direct link initiate." He said.

Instantaneously, the loading sequence started and soon enough he found himself spawn at the starting point. In the world he liked. "Guns and monsteras online". In this world, he was slim and strong in his opinion. Perhaps not the most physique and muscular or attractive however for what he needed and wanted to do, it would more than suffice.

The lobby of the game looked as normal as it should be. He could see fellow school-mates chatting about and minding their own business within small or large groups of avatars. Everyone was tugging around their guns and some people were showing off their newly acquired weapons. The entire setting of the lobby can remind people of the spawn in lobby in Gun Gale online except now it looked a bit more like a luxurious hotel lobby instead of the plain old grey platform.

Everything occurring around him, Greg gave little or no attention as it wasn't the reason why he came here. All he was here to do was to head over to that specific simulator in which housed the mini game which he was the greatest at.

Heading out of the lobby through a set of revolving doors, Greg walked into the open. A beautiful landscape decorated by tall, health trees with blooming green leaves. Plush golf green like grass along with a shining bright sun. The temperature was also tuned just perfectly at a comfortably warm twenty four degrees Celsius. The bird were chirping out in the open with their tweetingly beautiful tune. The dragon flies were buzzing about and constantly harassed Greg's avatar much to his annoyance.

"Go away grubs!" He said shooing them away with his hands.

It worked and the flies soon left him alone and he continued down the brick road and soon the house that carried the mini game soon came into view

"Oh god... like, oh my gosh but how did you clear the Ram dungeon on your own using only a sniper rifle. Like that's impossible unless you using hacks or something Weib Rose!" A girl said somewhere nearby.

"Can I borrow your rifle again for the upcoming tournament Weib chan?" Another girl asked.

Greg got a bit nosey and decided to go and take a look at what was going on nearby and traced his way to the location by homing in on the direction the sound was coming from. Then he saw a group of five girls, three of which he recognized were from the school's student council and also a pair of unknowns. He also soon found that the girl at the centre of all the attention was none other than the person whom had given him the ride to school earlier that morning.

Dressed in a white short sleeved dress shirt with a dark forest green tie and also an unbuttoned sleeveless black blazer. With a matching school uniform skirt, white knee socks and also combat sneakers, blonde hair and also a chic school girl like appearance, was none other than the student council president, Acadia Van Chromium. Better known by her avatar name: "Das Weib Rose" here in the VR world. She was a legend here in this game have been able to wipe out an entire platoon of level 97 rogue assault riflemen bosses all in about two minutes without having a single shot being fired at her whilst she was hidden in an easily discoverable firing position. It was as if she was some kind of god in this game. One thing was for sure, her reaction and reflex ratings were beyond that of an average player for some unknown reason that she is unwilling to release to other people who wanted to be just like her in terms of skill.

" _Wow su'goi. She cleared that high level dungeon all on her one and with a semiautomatic weapon. God she's incredible."_ Greg thought just as the blonde turned her face in his direction, showcasing an interested facial expression.

Greg was charged with a sudden surge of embarrassment. His cheek's reddened up in a flash as his mind swirled as to wondering what the blonde was looking at him for. Was it pure genuine interest? Did he like him? No way… Was she looking at someone else but he took it as she was looking at him? No way… there was no one standing in the way to obscure their eyes from meeting. Glorious, she was looking at him, and to add more to the broth. Her purely genuine gaze of interest simply took his breath away. How could such a beautiful face be looking at him like this way? It was just impossible! The moment of awkwardness soon ended as one of the girls in the five person group moved in and blocked the direct line of sight between him and her and started blabbing about something.

Still awe struck, Greg somehow lost his footing and fell backwards down the stone steps landing face first on the brick road down below. Thank god this was only the virtual world and not the real thing because if it had indeed been the real thing. He'd most likely broken his nose or worse, fractured his cranium. Regaining his footing, Greg pressed forwards towards his originally intended location and entered the house. Selected his zombie survival game and began playing, doing something that he was actually good at.

 **[One round of zombie survival later]**

"Gah! No no noooo!" Greg yelled as the zombie came charging up to him and delivered the final scratch at him that was needed to bring him down to zero on his HP bar. He'd lost, and it was level one hundred fifty six.

Knowing that he'd beaten his previous record, Greg joyously congratulated himself before allow the leaderboards screen to pop up for him to enter his score. Once again happily taking a look at the number one hundred and fifty six, he typed in his usual initials for his avatar in game and pressed submit to enter the score. The board automatically moved his score to the top ten score in the leaderboard and Greg closed his eye in enjoyment and leaned back, awaiting for the announcer to announce he had once again obtained "First place". It was once again a time for him to enjoy himself for being able to do something and was the best at it.

"Congratulations Mr. Wellesley" The announcer said stating his avatars name. "You have acquired 'second' place on the leaderboards chart! The person 'unknown' has bested you current score by nine levels. Come back and try again if you want to beat the score of 'unknown'!"

What? What did the announcer just say? Had someone beat his best score? But how was it possible? Just who was capable of doing such a feet, who was this unknown person? Why? This was the only thing he was good at in life, he was the best at. Now, someone else was better than him, everything he'd done had been for nothing. He'd lost to this… 'unknown' person. Without a warning, Greg bent down to the ground and started wetting his eyes with his tears. He was upset, he didn't want this to happen. At an instant, a portion-able amount of the reasons as to why he lived was erased from existence. This was horrible!

"Aahhh… it took me quite a while to beat your score and also to secure the extra insurance it'll be harder for anyone else to beat it." Someone said in the background.

Greg turned his tearful face around and found the blonde from previously standing there and looking at him with a mockingly interested look on her face. "Go away… you beat my score. Now it's going to be impossible for me to redeem myself as a person! Can't you see I'm really upset right now?! So please… leave me along." He whined.

The blonde sighed in the background before she walked over and knelt down to his balled up and crying height. "I have an offer… I mean proposition for you Mr. W. It is your choice as to which you want to hear it or not. But either way you'll still be hearing me out so whatever." She said before clearing her throat.

"Mr. G, or W. If you desire to change your world to your heart's content then meet me at the school's student patio lounge tomorrow lunch. I shall discuss more of my offer there with you. But this will be enough Intel for you for now. Well then, good bye!" She said before taking off.

"W..wait.. what is this offer about… hello?" Greg asked back but received no answer.

He opened his tear soaked eyes and not even a ghost or shadow was insight. It was as if that what just happened was just an illusion. He now had something that interested him, but could he trust the validity of the information he received during that suspected illusion? He'd need to find out for himself for sure. Checking the time, he realized it would be soon time for fourth period and so he headed off with logging out of the world of illusions.

 **[The next day, third period: Lunch break]**

Greg was smart and informed enough to know that the school's student patio lounge did not welcome first year students like him. The moment he entered he was approached by a trio of his upperclassman whom obstructed him from proceeding in any further.

"Hey there boy! What you doing here for? Need help? Lost?" One of the men said.

"How can we help you little one?" Another girl asked bending down to his chubby height.

All around them, junior and senior students started to notice him and began a short talk about him like 'who's that fat kid', or 'doesn't this kid know that this place doesn't welcome first year students'? Greg overheard these unwelcomed comments about him and was tempted to apologize stating he'd lost his way or sense of direction and ended up here, deliver a blunt excuse for ending up here in all before taking his immediate leave.

The words were about to leave his mouth before a familiar voice stopped him from doing so.

"Its alright chaps. I was the one who invited him here." Someone said.

Greg turned his eyes towards the source of the dialogue. There, at one of the furthest most tables sat Acadia along with a handful of her student council "general staff". He observed her dropping a cube of sugar into her coffee before taking a quick sip before she continued speaking.

"If you gate guards would be so kind enough to allow my little friend over there to enter the patio at his will, I will appreciate your kindness uttermost greatly." She said.

It was the key that needed for the trio to back off and allow Greg to enter. Walking in, Greg was met by an enormous handful of stares from the upperclassman gathered there on the patio and the silent whispers that targeted him continued. Acadia didn't seemed to care at all about the awkward situation she'd created but instead waved lightly at Greg and beckoned him to sit with her group's table.

"Shawn, go and help him to a chair" She ordered her vice president, Shawn Feng who got up and offered Greg a chair.

"Uh, thanks" Greg said sitting on the chair before Shawn lightly pushed the chair into the table with his leg and went back to his seat.

"I see you brought us yet another potent specimen Acadia. Tell me, how did you decide on making him a candidate in the first place? I mean… you can clearly see there were candidates that were better than him that you've brought to this table previously." Shawn said taking on his trademarked Gendo pose. The sun was positioned just perfectly and caused the lenses of his glasses to shine bright white.

"Shawn, did you read my email that I sent you yesterday night? I've clearly outlined all my reasons there in hopes of you reading it. So did you?" Acadia asked in Greg's defence.

Shawn smacked his head into his palms. "No… fine… I'll give him a fair trial. Continue onwards with the pitch. But do keep in mind. If his trial avatar ends up as a normal grunt I'm not going to give my stamp of approval." He said shaking his head before reaching for his backpack and rummaging into it for something.

"Oh Shawn, look at him! In a certain angle he's actually rather cute!" A shorter hazelnut hair colored girl with twin tails said. She reached out and pinched one of Greg's cheeks. "Oh my goooddd! Soo cute and fleshy! I like him!" She said.

"Katia, you know you should keep your money licking hands to yourself right?" Acadia scolded her council's treasurer. "Mr. Greg is still new to our circle, don't make him want to leave during the first meeting alright?"

The shrimp backed down from pinching Greg and sat laid back in her seat while crossing her arms and a gleaming smile on her face. "Don't worry piglet! The moment I get to send you to pinchy hell I'm gonna do it!"

"Got the cables lad and lasses. Alright here you all go." He said connect the wires all together with an adapter and handing everyone an end.

Greg didn't take his end of the cable immediately when he was offered one.

"Come on, go on. Take the end and connect it to your neuro linker." Shawn said.

"Uhm, uhh… like I hope you do know or remember that actually sempai… People only cable link if they're dating or something. Like… if you're that type of person... I mean you group of people are those types of person then I'll have to decline." Greg said tempted to leave.

"Greg." Acadia said his name. "I can't afford to have anyone else listen in on our conversation so please do connect yourself to the wire. I do understand this may be a weird experience for you but after I tell you everything. You won't regret doing this." She said.

He didn't have much of a choice, and Shawn once again offered him the cable. There was an expression of in-content on the Asian guy's face as when Greg didn't budge a muscle to accept the capable. The next thing Greg knew was that Shawn had leaned over the table and had grabbed his head forcing it backwards before he forcibly plugged the wire into his neuro linker before he sat down and crossed his right leg onto his left leg.

"For a little bird brain like you, you sure do have the ability to resist." He neuro chatted to him.

"Shawn, now is not to time for you to psychologically attack people you know? If you're just going to continue then I would like to ask you to leave." Acadia shot.

Shawn snorted before he adjusted his position in his chair and looked the other way. "Carry on, I'll be silent." He said.

Acadia gave him a stare, something Shawn didn't dare to turn his head around to look at.

"Alright, moving on. Mr. Greg thank you for accepting my invitation to join us here today. I see my pitch on you yesterday had done its effect and as I said previously. I shall reveal more details regarding what offer I have for you." She said taking a sip from her coffee.

"Uh yah… of course. Anything for you council president." Greg dumbly replied.

"Ok, so I want to ask you. Do you want to or have a need to change your life the way it is in any way?" She asked.

"Well… I uhh…" He said thinking.

The conversation between the two of them lasted for fifteen minutes as Acadia bombarded him with carefully designed questions that just about gave her every personal detail she needed about Greg's personal life. At the end of her session, Greg got a bit hungry so she ordered him a Tuna egg sandwich which he devoured in a minute. After his short break, it was Gendo posing Shawn's turn in which he began to ask Greg his gaming experiences, his ability to problem solve, his creativity, his grades and a few other things before the two seemed to have brought each other a little closer as at the end of Shawn's fifteen minute session. The vice president had offered Greg a handshake which Greg took. A slight of a mistake made by Greg as his poor hand was crushed a bit in the process. A short break happened when Acadia lectured Shawn in his ways of shaking people's hands which Shawn shrugged off like he was a troll and started laughing like a know it all. Lastly, it was the treasurer's turn to ask him question in her short five minute session. Things like his interests and if he knew how to cook or not. Funny questions that entertained Greg largely and caused him to lose control of his tongue slightly as he may have given just a bit too much information.

"So uh, are we done?" Greg asked.

"Not yet." Acadia replied. "Chaps, is he good to move onto the trial stage?" She asked her general staff.

The hazelnut hired girl nodded enthusiastically and Shawn just crossed his armed and knocked on the surface of the table. The poker player's way of saying 'check'.

"Alright, since everyone is in agreement." Acadia said selecting a file from her storage before packing it up into one of her bunny avatar messengers. "I shall send you this file for you to download". And with that she swiped her hand triggering the rabbit to hop into Greg's neuro linker.

An indication bubble popped up which read: "File received. Install: 'Tactical Burst online' YES/NO?"

Greg looked at Acadia who smiled and nodded. Seeing this, he manned up and pressed 'YES'.

At once the file began its download and installation.

"So what is this 'Tactical Burst online'?" Greg asked as the installation neared twenty percent.

Acadia replied while sipping on her coffee with her eyes closed. "I'll tell you that once the installation is complete and we've entered the realm." She said. "If… it installs correctly and successfully without perhaps at most… frying your brain in the process!"

Greg felt as if he'd been pierced through his heart by a spear. "Wh… wh… what do you speak of these installation failures?" He asked alarmed.

"It happens kiddo. Some neuro linkers just can't adapt to the high graphics, technical, and psychological demands of the installation and go mad before the game installs. But don't worry… that's just still yet an unproven urban myth." Shawn giggled.

It was a grueling and frightening weight as the program installed itself. But alas, it was complete and the welcoming screen popped up in front of Greg reading: "Welcome to Tactical Burst Online. Pour Francais, choisi la deuxieme langue"

"What is this…? Tactical burst online?" Greg asked in slight bit of confusion.

"I'll tell you more once we're inside the game. On my mark, everyone say Burst in." Acadia said just when she was interrupted.

"Hey Private fat body!" Somebody yelled in the background. All eyes turned towards the source. "You really thought you would be able to squirm off and escape like this didn't yah?" Johnson shouted accompanied by his goons and also a few members of the coalition.

"You were supposed to bring me my order from yesterday but you didn't. NOW YOURE GOING TO PAY! DOUBLE TIME!" He shouted.

"Well, salutations to you there dumbkompfe." Acadia interrupted him.

For a second Johnson was tempted to drag the person who'd spoken out and insulted him into Greg's mess. But when his eyes changed focus and onto the blonde haired girl sitting near Greg, his aggression on her immediately backed off. He didn't have the guts to mess with this girl as she had way higher status than him.

"Eh heh heh… prinzessen Chromium… perhaps the label 'dumbkompfe is too much of a mis-statement that doesn't match me. You see…" Johnson said to defend himself before Acadia interrupted him.

"Oh no no no! Do be mistake here herr Canfielder. Herr Cloverfield has told me all about you!" Acadia giggled before continuing. "The thing that stood out the most and appeared rather shocking to me was the fact that you had supposedly bought your way into this government run private school after having utterly failed the entrance exam and you daddy came along and shoved fifty thousand dollars up the Dean's pockets to have you admitted into this school. But that is what Greg here told me, is it true?" She asked innocently while leisurely taking yet another sip from her coffee.

It was true Greg hadn't told her about this, but Acadia was one of those people who'd had the power to go into these admittance records and take a quick look before slipping out undetected. What she'd just said was true, indeed this Canfielder had failed the entrance exam and had only gotten in after his dad had done some under table dealings. The coalition of boys standing behind Johnson and his goons took a step back from the sudden outburst.

"Wh..wh..whah? No I didn't tell her that!" Greg said trying to defend himself.

"There is absolutely no need for you to pretend you didn't say that Mr. Cloverfield" Shawn said behind Greg rubbing his chin. "Mind I add, the theory that you pointed out does actually make some logical sense about Canfielder xian shen here." He added sounding as if he was thinking innocently.

Johnson was both utterly embarrassed and insanely mad knowing that his weak points have been exposed. By some chubby face fat kid here! "You little fucking vermin of a bratty tick! You're nothing more than a piece of absolute heretic shit! That's it! You've done it haven't you! I'm going to punch you till every last drop of blood in that obese body of yours has leaked clean out of your intestines!" Johnson roared clenching up his fist and getting into position to deliver a painful, real blow.

"Mark!" Acadia suddenly shouted getting off of her chair and towards Greg.

Call it intuition and excellent situational awareness, a first for Greg but when he heard those words. He'd followed ensuite and the words quickly exited his mouth. Instantaneously, everything froze like space and time had stopped. Johnson's punch froze in suspension and so did the about to spill cup of coffee next to Acadia. Everything… was in suspended animation. All except for Greg and what appeared to be three other virtual avatars.

As Greg's vision cleared up from its blurriness. He soon made out the silhouettes then appearances of the three other avatars. There stood Acadia's avatar: Weib Rose, Shawn's classic MW3 Delta operator, and some panda fusion with a human girl she'd assumed was the hazelnut haired girl.

"Where am I? Why is everything frozen?" Greg asked.

"Welcome to tactical burst online! You'll grow use to it soon enough chum." Acadia said walking towards hum followed by Shawn and the hazelnut haired girl.

"So… did we just stop time?" Greg asked taking in his surroundings more.

"That is a reasonable question that should be made by first time burst linkers." Shawn said slapping Greg's avatar in the back. "No. The answer is no. The entirety of space and time is still moving. If the entirety of space, time and the universe had somehow stopped. By god... if we can do this then we can go back in time! So no, we're still moving forwards in time but!" He paused.

"But! Our way of viewing time passing has changed! That is the key and biggest difference! You see, this software that we've all installed has simply… hmm how should I put it without going all technical data coding like and stuff?" Shawn said pausing and thinking for a bit. "The software has simply sped up our brain waves by about one thousands five hundred times compared to the normal! Faster processing speed that's it! In other words, we have simply accelerated from the real world. Every second spent in the real world, equals to one thousands five hundred seconds in this world! Yes that's it! By the way, this entire blue world is generated by using the imaging received from security cameras that completely engulf our school. Takes what the camera seas, then pieces everything together like a giant jigsaw puzzle and voila! The three dimensional atmosphere we see right now is created!" Shawn mused slapping Greg in his back again.

"Shawn… stop being a jackass and hands off of Greg will yah?" Acadia said pushing Shawn aside and pulling Greg to her side. "Yes we've simply accelerated in time. Our brain waves processing speed has been increased outstandingly causing us to feel as if one second in the real world is one thousands five hundred seconds in here." She said.

"Wow... so in other words I can just enter this world during an exam and generate the extra time in order to think things thoroughly before answering the question and then probably ace the test? Oh joy!" Greg said excitedly and hopping around.

"Uhh... yah you can put it that way… thought there is another side towards these… burst points" Acadia responded scratching the back her neck. "Just don't take off your neuro linker until you come back to school tomorrow and after you exit the school grounds, no matter what but DO NOT CONNECT TO THE GLOBAL NET!" She delivered her point straight and clear.

"Yah yah ok… I won't don't worry. And what are you talking about these burst points and the other side of them?" Greg curiously asked.

"Burst points are the amount of times you can enter the burst linker world. Every time you enter it, you lose one point. Once your burst points run dry to zero, you will be automatically booted from the system and the software will automatically uninstall from your neuro linker and…" Shawn said clearing his throat. "You will forever lose the power to burst the link. All memories of you possessing it will be automatically erased from your memory, and don't even thinking about attempting to reinstall it, even if you somehow do get to the installing phase. The program will never install itself because it would have your brain waves properly memorized and it will remember you! Once that kicks in, it'll prevent you from installing the game… forevaaahh!" He said madly.

Twack! "YYEEEOOWWW!" Acadia smashed the stock of her rifle into Shawn's neck causing him to fall to the ground in pain before crunching up into a ball.

"Excuse my underling over there but he tends to go Dr. Richtofen everytime we start going into tec." She apologized to Greg.

"And when someone starts talking about the stock market with him! He's a stock broker you know? Golf to! He plays tournaments every week during the golfing season!" The panda girl said before she got the 'stare' from Acadia which sufficiently got her to shut up.

"Now ahem. We should focus on the current situation at hands Mr. Cloverfield." Acadia said walking behind a suspended in motion, Johnson. "This man wants to punch you… really badly. What do you want to do about it?" She asked smiling before leaning onto the suspended Johnson's shoulder.

Greg thought for a moment. He realized that what he had in hand right now was the ability to access and evaluate the given situation and seek a resolve that would do him as less pain as possible.

"I want to avoid this attack. Because I know it'll really hurt if it connects with me." Greg said.

Shawn, by now had recovered from Acadia's painful stocking and had risen up to access the situation. He got in close and personal. Estimating the velocity of his punch, the point of impact, the angle of approach and etcetera. Then he spoke.

"Yah that might be a good idea little boy. This punch has been strategically designed and executed by this brute with optimal effort. Its going to hurt a lot… maybe chip a tooth or pair if it varies within a range of 1-3 degrees off of the predicted impact point. Unless… well…" Shawn stopped looking at Greg.

"Shawn, go on please." Acadia said walking over to get a closer look.

"Well, uhm if you can suddenly tilt your head backwards where the top of your head will be tilting on a thirty five degree axis, the punch would simply impact into your nose… without! Breaking it. At most, it'll cause a heavy nose bleed but if you do that…" Shawn said walking behind the suspended Greg.

"You'll be most likely to fall over and hit your head onto the stone floor. Then we'll have to worry about a fractured head or possibly at the best… a minor concussion. Both very unhealthy…" He said.

"This is when I'll come in and I'll catch him before he makes impact with the stone flooring" Acadia said walking over to herself. "I know Johnson is one of those people who like to double tap a lot and he won't let a victim go without at least hitting them twice. Maybe four times in this case since he knows he'll be done for when the administration gets their hands on him." She added.

"He'll definitely be going berserk even if you get directly involved Rose dono. It's most likely if you shield Greg from the three more blows, you'll be the one suffering most of the pain. And I hope you do remember that Johnson is a certified black belt in Kung Fu right? So… you know…" Shawn said obviously concerned for the wellbeing of his boss.

"That when you come in gendarme, according to our school rules. If a student is being relentlessly attacked by the same person for more than two hits in a row, an observing bystander is permitted to use whatever method needed to separate the attacker from the victim under the condition it doesn't painfully hurt the attacker and/or draw more than 20 millilitres of blood. So… yah…" Acadia said looking at Greg.

"Oh boy… so you want me to tackle him to the ground and do this, the tackling onto the wall part?" Shawn gleemed quickly sending Acadia and everyone else the video he had in mind. For… hilarity purposes. " /jTRa_IvFoYM?t=1h2m6s"

Acadia rolled her eyes and didn't even bother to watch the video. But Greg did, reading the subtitles and watch the action, he couldn't help but burst out in laughter.

"Just restrain him before he delivers the third punch. Your boss is counting on you so don't fail me! Oh and Katia, panda girl. Please call in the QRF as fast as you can ok?" Acadia said before turning her attention back to Greg. "Oh and make the most out of it and look as hurt as you can be. This'll for sure boot Johnson out of the school." She winked before walking back to her suspended self. "Burst out!"

Shawn and the Panda both said the same thing and Greg, first confused but later to followed and let the words come out of his mouth. In an instant everything resumed and the fist came barreling down towards him at the exact approach angle and velocity as had Shawn predicted. Remembering his instructions, with the aid of his bodily muscles, he snapped his head backwards square onto the desired angle and the fist made impact with his nose sending him backwards in his chair. He felt the hind legs of his chair give away and soon he was in a freefall.

On cue, a pair of arms caught him before his precious head made impact with the stone floor. Automatically, he was flung around and his face… pressed against a pair of… incredibly soft objects. Oh boy…

"You little punk!" Johnson bellowed now disregarding whomever he was going to punch, he just sent the fists flying. All of which impacted onto Acadia's back or the back of her head. Greg heard the girl wince in pain silently as each punch made contact. He counted four consecutive punches, wait… where was Shawn? This was when he was supposed to come in.

In the background, Shawn had hesitated just enough to allow for another to punch to slip off the radar and made impact onto Acadia. But he soon realized his mistake and corrected it. In an instant, he bolted himself forwards and grabbed Johnson with a powerful grip. Thanks to the fact he worked out a lot and was a part of the local army cadets division, pinning Johnson against the wall using a technique he was taught in cadets was more than easy enough for him. For insurance, he kicked both of Johnson's legs part and wedged both of his legs beside both of his feet demobilizing him.

"OH GOD! Someone get a teacher quick!" The observers started to scream and within seconds the security staff had shown up.

"Uhm... thanks for taking those blows for me…" Greg said.

"Stop breathing idiot. I feel your breath against me in my chest area." Acadia responded.

Everything that happened after that was hectic. Shawn was apprehended by the security staff to and taken to the Dean's office. Greg and Acadia were taken to the nurse's office where Greg got his nose patched up while Acadia was given a pair of pain killers and also an ice pack for her head. After the medical stuff was dealt with, the pair were summoned to the head mistress's office and questioned thoroughly. Acadia did her part and helped clean Shawn's fault stating the school's rule which she was pulling on and that her underling had only done such a thing since it was and is the right thing to do in such a situation.

The head mistress also questioned Greg thoroughly to and also on the part regarding Shawn's actions. Greg to support for all charges applicable to Shawn to be dropped. The head mistress also thought it would be bad for the school's community if word got out that she'd suspended the student council vice president for supposedly defending his friend. No, it would ruin her reputation! After being convinced a bit more by the duo, the mistress allowed Shawn to go off scot free but with a warning telling him to not enact anything similar again.

As for the main offender, Johnson. Acadia made sure the book was thrown at him. Firstly he would be expelled from the school, secondly, he was to appear in a youth court for assault and possibly a jail sentence. Most importantly, he was to from now on go to a juvenile school.

The administrative stuff took up the entire of period four and five and everyone except Johnson was released from the office when the bell rang. Greg received a ride home from Acadia whom reminded him about not connecting to the global net and also to keep his neuro linker on till he arrived to school again the next day. After that, she went home with her car and wasn't seen again for the remainder of the day.

 **[That night, in Greg's dream].**

He was surrounded by the laughing mask like faces of Johnson calling him by all the nicknames he'd once thrown at him in the previous months. To add more to the broth, he felt the jagging pain of his punches of hate. Something forever scarred into his innocent mind. He also was approached by the faces in the boys coalition whom all mocked him while spiraling around him and laughing at him.

"No… please... stop! I don't want any of this! Just... go away... GO AWAY!" He yelled but it didn't work.

The laughter continued, and soon more and more faces appeared. Both friend and foe were laughing at him in a mocking fashion. All Greg could do was but to scrunch into a ball and cover his ears in an attempt to mask himself out of all the insults. It had minimal effect as he could still clearly hear everything outside of him.

"Stop it! Make it stop! I can't stand this anymore! It's driving my insane! I can't stand it anymore. Please anyone MAKE IT STOOOPPP!" He screamed at the top of his lungs.

At first nothing happened but then he heard the droning of what seemed to be a pair of engines over all the insults. Looking up, the dark clouds overhead had created a small gap in between themselves and up high in there he saw the silhouette of a plane. A Douglas C-47 skytrain was directly overhead, above him. Greg reached out for it in an effort to grasp it.

"That's where I should be! Up there high in the sky looking down at the many other beneath me. I should have the ability… the ability to descend down upon here and make right to these people, make them serve in return for what they've done to me. I also want to ability to go back up there again and watch these people being below me at my will." He wished.

Then, a background narrator spoke. "Request received, request granted. Enjoy your soldier trooper!" Then the dream ended.

 **[The next morning]**

Greg awoke in a pool of sweat. It felt like his brother had doused him with a bucket of water again and he half expected his trolling voice again. But he wasn't there… Opening his eyes, Greg stared at the clock and read the time. Seven AM. His usual time for waking up for school.

"Greg! Time to wake up!" His mom shouted from down the stairs.

"Uh… yah ok mom! I am!" Greg instantly shouted back rubbing his head.

"Man that felt like a weird dream… I wonder what that was all about… maybe I should ask Acadia when she drives me to school…" He thought before the idea was vanquished with the sound of the Lamborghinis next door starting up. He could clearly make out the two cars. Both of them drove off the driveway, one after another before buzzing away. Oh wait, that was it. Acadia always had her student council meetings early in the morning before school every Thursday. No wonder she'd left her house at this time.

Hopping down the stairs, Greg had breakfast and then headed over to ask his dad for lunch money.

"Greg, you're not on the net… hook up buddy and I'll give you the cash" His dad said.

Greg, forgetting what Acadia had instructed him earlier did as his father told and soon enough, thirty dollar appeared in his online wallet. Thanking his parents and saying good bye to them and his brother, he laced up his shoes and walked out the door. Onto the sidewalk, he enjoyed the beautiful, humid and breezy morning. He now knew for sure that his world had changed, even if it was just the slightest bit, it was still a change! He began whistling the tune from the bridge over Kwai to add some enjoyment music to his walk.

watch?v=wyfRVjn71ho

Suddenly… the world paused before becoming blue and the ground began to quake and soon the sidewalk and surrounding soil buckled creating a large gap. Greg was automatically raised by 'magic' above the ground just as a wave of fire washed over the surface of the earth beneath him, burning everything and reducing almost each and everything thing in visible sight to ash. A few green trees survived but Greg soon saw his house burning.

"No..." He thought in shock. "What's happening?! Did I just turn on the burst?" He yelped.

He once again took a look at the ground below him, noticing he was still ascending. The surface of the Earth began to reshape and soon older looking houses started to appear as well as the addition of some sloped hills and also some green plant life. But the majority of the ground was afire on had numerous shell craters in it.

"[DEATHMATCH] PREPARE FOR ABSOLUTE CARNAGE! ROUND BEGINS IN… THIRTY SECONDS!" A fiery caption appeared in front of him accompanied by a narrator.

On cue, Greg's body began to reshape with a blinding light being emitted as bright as a sun from his own self. He closed his eyes shut as much as they can be in order to protect his eyes but it had minimal effect. Then the light faded and Greg found himself wearing… WWII American green airborne paratrooper gear. A M1 Carbine slung on his shoulders, the iconic American flag sown onto the left side of his jump jacket, and a pair of parachutes strapped to him. One in front, another at the back. To add more to the broth, he was standing in a… fully operational C-47! Oh god… He also realized his avatar name.

"Metallic sergeant…" He read. "So that's the name of my avatar?"

He soon realized he was the only person sitting in the fuselage and there was no jump master nearby, soon the red light came on and Greg knew exactly what to do. He hooked up and walked towards the exit hatch of the plane. He looked below him to see the faint silhouette of a biker riding, from judging the sound of an engine. A 42 WLA motorcycle. But the bike itself looked rather weird to begin with. A little while later, the green light came on but Greg hesitated from jumping. He remained there as the time went on.

Unknown to him, his match against this unknown biker was being observed by a handful of other people.

"Whats the nooby doing up there sitting in his transport plane?! Get down here already and fight!" Someone wearing a tanker uniform said.

"I think he probably doesn't know what to do… or he's afraid of heights!" Another laughed.

"Ugh... judging by the current rate of things…. This is going to be one heck of a boring match…" A geek wearing a German officer like uniform, whom was holding onto a laptop said.

"Just jump already!" The tanker yelled.

The biker, wasn't going to let this easy kill slip away so easily. He was smart about it and soon biked his way over to a quad twenty millimeter cannon mount. A Flakvierling… dismounted his bike and got into the gunner seat. Aimed, and unleashed the hail of twenty millimeter projectiles at the lumbering C-47 above scoring multiple critical hits. Soon enough the plane caught fire and Greg was forced to jump out. Half on fire.

Panicking, he quickly got rid of his… chutes… his burning jacket… and most of his ammunition during his… slower than normal freefall. He soon realized that he'd gotten rid of his parachutes… oh no! He was going to get splattered onto the ground before he had the chance to fight! What I noob! As the ground came closer and closer, Greg closed his eyes waiting for the sickening splat to come. But it didn't, instead he levelled out before landing softly on the ground with both of his feet.

"What the hell?" Greg said to himself in disbelief as he saw he was still intact.

But his curiosity was soon washed away just as the sound of the 42 WLA came closer. The place he landed was rather foggy, he could only make out the shadow of the biker. He saw the 42 WLA… but now questioned if it was even one. It had what appeared to be a pair of M1919 machine guns mounted on a thick steel bar in the front, being belt fed from a pair of ammunition boxes to the rear of the bike. This craft was piloted by none other than some person whose head was on fire.

"Hello nooby scrub lord…" It said in a scary anonymous voice. "I am here to kill you… no... Sac you of some of those delicious burst points while! Giving you a total beat down!" He boasted before revving his engine a few times.

"Without any further delay… like you camping up there high in your C-47. Let us begin." He said pressing down on the accelerator, his back tire started to skid before he took off towards Greg.

"LEERROOYYY!" He yelled before pressing on the trigger which fired both of his front mount coxial M1919 machine guns.

Tracer ammunition, loads of them, headed straight towards Greg. He was certainly… going to die.


End file.
